Flint officials still mum on contingency plans following denial of $7.9 million federal grant

FLINT, MI – Flint officials painted a bleak picture that included eliminating a quarter of the city’s firefighters and closing two fire stations when it asked for more federal money for its department.

A day after getting word from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday, April 7 that the city's request for a $7.9 million grant has been denied, Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley said a contingency plan is still being worked out.

The grant funds 39 firefighters over two years.

“Depending on what the organization looks like and what revenues are left given the loss of the grant we’ll have to use that to fashion a workforce that we can afford to pay for with the remaining funds,” Earley said. “You won’t get the actuals until we have a budget developed because that’s where the plan is ultimately going to be played out is in the development of the fiscal year (2015) and (2016) budgets.”

Chief David Cox Jr. referred all questions to Earley about the city’s contingency plans to provide fire protection across the 34-square-mile city without the grant.

Earley said he expects an independent study of the city’s public safety services to deliver a report by the end of July or early August. He has not awarded the contract for the study yet.

“There is, at least at this point, no final determination about what the organization will look like,” Earley said.

Earley said the city has yet to speak to the Flint Firefighters Union about looming layoffs.

The city has previously said that
the loss of the grant could lead to the layoff of 19 firefighters as it
is forced to supplement the lost funding with $4.1 million over the
next two years with money from a five-year public safety millage
approved by voters.

“We’re going to do all that we possibly can to
reorganize the Flint Fire Department into a functional and safe,
high-quality fire protection department based on our ability to fund
it,” Earley said. “Our goals have not changed as it relates to providing
the best services that we can to the city. The city is in financial
distress and that limits the options we have in order to do that.”

“We’re very concerned about how we’re going to operate going forward,” Flint Fire Firefighters Union President Mark Kovach told The Flint Journal on Monday. “All (the city) said was if we did not get the grant there will be layoffs. I don’t know yet how many.”

The Flint Journal could not reach Kovach for comment on Tuesday, April 8.

“We’ve haven’t been exposed to any tangible plans to date,” said Trent Farnsworth, former union president. “To say it’s deflating would be an understatement.”

Farnsworth said any layoffs would be given at least 30 days before the current SAFER grant expires in early June.

The city wasn’t given any specific reason in its denial letter from FEMA, just that there were 1,500 applicants seeking $1.67 billion in federal assistance.

“The large number of applications received and the finite amount of available funding resulted in many worthy applicants not being funded and underscores the highly competitive nature of this program,” FEMA wrote in its letter. “Given the high number of applications received, it is not feasible for us to provide a detailed account of how each individual application was rated in the competitive process. However, we can tell you that the peer review panel scores indicate that your application was generally good and above average however, after awarding departments with scores higher than the scores assigned to your department's application, we regrettably do not have enough funding to offer you an award at this time.”

City Council President Scott Kincaid said he wasn’t surprised that Flint didn’t get a third round of funding.

He blamed previous Emergency Managers Michael Brown and Ed Kurtz.

“We were supposed to have 105 firefighters from the very beginning and we’ve fallen below that,” Kincaid said. “We’ve browned out stations. We didn’t really maintain the level that was originally applied for in the original grant.”

The city has had two years to put together a plan for what to do if Flint didn’t get a renewal, Kincaid said.

“I don’t think they have a plan,” he said. “There was no long range plan. Now I think they’re all scrambling and I think this is a shortfall of the chief and it’s kind of reactionary instead of being proactive. We can’t operate that way in public safety.”

Farnsworth echoed some of Kincaid’s sentiments about inadequate staffing and a lack of planning on behalf of the administration.

Flint officials told FEMA that there were 352 arsons in the city in 2012, according to its grant application.

Statistics the city reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Report, show there were 226 arsons in 2012.

Raynille Moore still remembers when her car was fire-bombed two years ago. She said it firefighters nearly an hour to respond and the only reason her north-side home didn’t catch fire was because it’s made of brick.

“It’s hard to imagine in a city like this – with the crime and everything – that we don’t have enough people to protect us,” Moore said. “It’s more jobs not to be had.

“I think it’s a shame that (FEMA) could do this and not worry about the protection of Flint.”

Flint firefighters respond to the second-most fire calls in the nation per capita and is first in runs per firefighter, according to city’s grant application that cited federal statistics.

Flint has held the No. 1 ranking in the nation for per-capita arson in cities of 100,000 or more residents and a Flint Journal analysis last year found there were 1,631 suspicious fires at vacant buildings from 2008-2012.

Other impacts losing the grant, according to the city's application, include:

The community would be at increased risk of death and property loss, as the city would have to get rid of 4-firefighter engines that allow rescuers to race into a burning building instead of wait for more firefighters to show up at the scene.

Firefighters would have to focus on keeping fires from spreading instead of putting them out.

The city will be even more at the mercy of mutual aid, relying on outside departments to fight fires. Those neighboring departments, however, don't get reimbursed fighting Flint fires which will result in financial hardships for out-county budgets.

Two fire stations would close, resulting in longer waits for fire trucks and more firefighter injuries due to a heavier workload.

Nancy Phillips, who lives in Davison, said she has a good friend lives on Flint’s east side and worries that the arsons that have plagued Flint will spread outside city limits..